As the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly begins the screening of nominated ministers, following the submission of the ministerial list by President Muhammadu Buhari to the upper house for consideration, the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigerian (FTAN) and Association of Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET) and other industry stakeholders have renewed calls for President Buhari to reinstate the defunct Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The President of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Alhaji Saleh Rabo, while reacting on the clamour by stakeholders, said: ”We call on President Buhari, as a matter of urgency to create a Ministry of Culture and Tourism so that tourism will be given its rightful place and attention and not made to play a second fiddle to information as we have seen display here today by the minister and his team who totally disregard our event for other matters that they rate above us and tourism.”
According to Rabo, the only practical way to drive tourism at the national level is to have a minister for culture and tourism who will be fully focused on working with the various stakeholders and parastatals of the government in harnessing and developing the potential of the sector through policies and programmes initiation and implementation.
Stressing that these were lacking in the last four years because the minister had so much on his plate and chose to focus attention on information and only turned to culture and tourism merely to make a political statement and not because he was interested in deepening the growth of the sector.
He added: “The minister’s preference for his information and political portfolios is the major reason why the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) and other tourism stakeholders as well as culture workers are clamouring for a restoration of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture ahead of the new cabinet to be constituted by President Buhari”.
According to ANJET, it will be a disservice to tourism and culture, if the Federal Government continues to ignore the calls for the defunct culture and tourism ministry that was created in 1999 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and was later merged with information in 2015 by President Buhari .
The body of travel and tourism writers stated that the experiences of countries reaping from the windfall of tourism and culture have shown that the only way out is to have a dedicated ministry at all levels for the creative industry and tourism in order to bring about a coordinated national approach and focus to bear on the sector.
It further stated that the experiment with the information and culture ministry in the last four years did not achieve the desired goal as culture and tourism were treated as second fiddle to information. As a result of this, opportunities to develop the sector and upgrade the creative industry were missed and sacrificed on the altar of politics.
The body stated that there is no other better time than now when insecurity in the land has got to an alarming level that the country needs a separate ministry for culture and tourism, with the minister in charge focusing on the best mode of harnessing communication and marketing mix to drive the sector, infuse confidence in the source markets, both domestic and international, through the appropriate messaging mode.
Stressing that having a minister of information and culture who most often sees himself as a government spokesperson, as it played out in the last four years, rather than a sales person and ambassador of tourism for the country and the creative industry, therefore better placed to shift through happenings in the land and present information with the right register and channel to impose confidence in the country, will not bode well for the country and the sector.
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